ardships and agony, maybe we would agree that many different kinds of people have had to — and still have to — rise above very hurtful adversity and discrimination.

The pharaoh in Egypt enslaved the Jews, who were made to work in the burning sun, pushed on by a whip, to build the pyramids and the king’s palace. The Russians have brutalized many people, including Jews. The Romans had their soldiers persecute the peasants who were Christian, and so on.

In the Holocaust, 6 million Jews — men, women and children — were torn apart from their families, and placed in railroad cattle cars only to be transported to a certain, horrible death with no possible chance of escape. Huge ovens and gas chambers were intentionally built for the sole purpose of putting human beings to death.

Yet, seldom do we hear moans and groans about what the remaining relatives of those persecuted are owed, or why it took so long for this country to recognize the treachery that was taking place as the Nazi movement spread.

We have all had our share of hardships, some much more than others. Just take a minute to think of yourself in the midst of the Holocaust, torn away from your loved ones, with no chance of escape or survival.

Let’s stop the apologies and judge each other only by our character, which if it includes decency, should negate any need to apologize.

Thank God for the survival of my humble, but mostly self-reliant, heritage.